The Great Ocean Road in 2 Days: The Perfect Itinerary

The Great Ocean Road is one of those drives that lives up to the hype, and then some. Stretching along Victoria’s southwest coast from Torquay to Allansford, it winds past surf beaches, rainforest, koala-filled gum trees and the towering limestone stacks of the Twelve Apostles. Plenty of people try to squeeze it into a single rushed day trip from Melbourne, but honestly, that’s not enough time to do it justice.

Two days is the sweet spot. It gives you enough time to actually stop at the lookouts instead of glimpsing them through a car window, wander a rainforest boardwalk, and watch the Apostles change colour at sunset without racing back to the city in the dark.

I’ve driven this route more times than I can count, in every season and every kind of weather, and this two-day plan is the version I’d hand to a friend visiting for the first time.

📋 TL;DR — the quick version

• 🚗 Day 1: Melbourne to Apollo Bay via Torquay, Bells Beach, Lorne and the Otways rainforest.
• 🌲 Overnight stop: Apollo Bay or Port Campbell, both within easy reach of the main sights.
• 🪨 Day 2: Cape Otway, the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and the Grotto before heading back inland.
• 🌅 Best light: visit the Twelve Apostles at sunrise or sunset for far fewer crowds and better photos.
• 🐨 Wildlife stop: Kennett River and Cape Otway are reliable spots for wild koalas.
• ⛽ Fuel up early: petrol stations thin out between Lorne and Apollo Bay, so don’t run the tank low.
• 🅿️ Book ahead: accommodation in Apollo Bay and Port Campbell sells out fast on weekends and holidays.

🗺️ Day 1: Melbourne to Apollo Bay

Start early. Melbourne traffic can eat into your morning, so aim to be on the road by 8am to make the most of the daylight. The drive from the city to Torquay, where the Great Ocean Road officially begins, takes about 90 minutes.

🏄 Torquay and Bells Beach

Torquay is Australia’s unofficial surf capital, home to the Australian National Surfing Museum. A short detour takes you to Bells Beach, the famous surf break made iconic by the film Point Break. Even if you don’t surf, the views over the point are worth the ten-minute stop.

🌊 Lorne

Lorne is a genuinely lovely beach town and a good spot for an early lunch. If you have an extra hour, the short walk to Erskine Falls just out of town is worth the detour, a pretty waterfall tumbling through fern gullies.

🐨 Kennett River koalas

About 20 minutes past Lorne, Kennett River is one of the most reliable places in the state to spot wild koalas dozing in the gum trees right above the road. Grey River Road, just off the highway, is the spot locals know.

👉 Book a guided Great Ocean Road tour on GetYourGuide →

🌳 Great Otway National Park

Before reaching Apollo Bay, detour inland into the Otways. The Maits Rest rainforest boardwalk is an easy 30-minute loop through ancient myrtle beech forest, and it’s a completely different landscape to the coastline you’ve been driving along all day.

Arrive in Apollo Bay by late afternoon, check into your accommodation, and reward yourself with fish and chips by the water. It’s a small town, but it has a lovely, unhurried energy after a long day of driving.

🪨 Day 2: Cape Otway to the Twelve Apostles

This is the day everyone comes for. Get moving early, both to beat the tour bus crowds and to catch the coastline in softer morning light.

1. Cape Otway Lighthouse. Australia’s oldest surviving lighthouse sits at the very tip of the cape, with sweeping ocean views and a good chance of spotting more koalas in the surrounding bushland.
2. Twelve Apostles. The main event. These limestone stacks rise straight out of the Southern Ocean, and despite the name, only about eight remain standing today after centuries of erosion. Arrive early to beat the tour bus rush.
3. Loch Ard Gorge. A short walk from the Apostles, this dramatic gorge is named after a shipwreck and has a network of staircases down to a sheltered beach, plus several clifftop lookouts.
4. The Grotto. A partially collapsed cave that frames the ocean like a natural window, best visited around low tide.
5. London Bridge. Once a double-arched rock formation connected to the mainland, until one section collapsed in 1990, famously stranding two tourists who had to be rescued by helicopter.

👉 Book a Twelve Apostles helicopter flight on GetYourGuide →

🚙 Heading home

From Port Campbell, you have two options for the return trip. Retracing the coastal road adds time but means you catch anything you missed. Alternatively, the inland route via the Princes Highway through Colac cuts the drive back to Melbourne down to around two and a half hours, which is a good option if you’re tired or short on time.

🧳 Practical tips for the trip

• 📵 Mobile signal drops out in patches through the Otways, so download offline maps before you leave Melbourne.
• 🌦️ Weather changes fast along this stretch of coast, so pack layers even in summer.
• 🚻 Public toilets and cafes are plentiful in Lorne and Apollo Bay but thin out between the smaller lookouts, so plan stops accordingly.
• 📸 Golden hour at the Twelve Apostles is genuinely spectacular, and it’s worth staying in Port Campbell an extra night just to see it lit up at sunset.
• 🐨 Never touch or feed wild koalas, even if they’re right beside the road; keep a respectful distance and use a zoom lens.

Two days along the Great Ocean Road strikes a good balance between seeing everything worth seeing and not spending your whole trip behind the wheel. Rush it into a single day and you’ll spend more time driving than actually looking at the scenery you came for. Give it two days, and you’ll come home with the photos, the koala sightings and the slow, unhurried memory of one of Australia’s best road trips.

🏨 Where to stay along the way

Picking the right overnight base shapes how relaxed the whole trip feels, and both Apollo Bay and Port Campbell work well depending on your pace.

🏘️ Apollo Bay

A proper little town with a decent range of motels, holiday apartments and a lively pub scene, Apollo Bay makes a comfortable, well-serviced base for night one. It also sits at a natural midpoint, close enough to the Otways that you’re not rushing the rainforest stop, but still leaving a manageable drive to the Twelve Apostles the next morning.

🏕️ Port Campbell

Smaller and quieter than Apollo Bay, Port Campbell sits just minutes from the Twelve Apostles, which makes it the better choice if catching sunrise or sunset at the rock stacks is a priority. Accommodation options are more limited here, so book ahead, especially on weekends.

🌦️ Best time of year to drive the route

The Great Ocean Road is a year-round drive, but the experience shifts noticeably with the seasons.

• ☀️ Summer (December to February) brings the warmest weather and the busiest roads, particularly around Christmas and school holidays, so expect crowds at the main lookouts.
• 🍂 Autumn (March to May) offers a great balance of mild weather and thinner crowds, arguably the best overall window for a relaxed two-day trip.
• ❄️ Winter (June to August) is quieter still, with dramatic stormy seas that make the coastline look even more powerful, though you’ll want warm layers and to check for occasional road closures after heavy rain.
• 🌸 Spring (September to November) brings wildflowers to the Otways and comfortable driving temperatures, another underrated shoulder-season option.

🚗 Self-drive vs guided tour

Most travellers assume self-driving is the only way to do the Great Ocean Road, but a guided day or overnight tour is genuinely worth considering, particularly if you’d rather look at the scenery than the road.

1. Self-driving gives you full control over timing and stops, ideal if you want to linger somewhere unexpected or skip a spot that doesn’t interest you.
2. Small group tours handle all the navigation and often include commentary from a local guide, useful context you’d otherwise miss driving yourself.
3. Overnight coach tours are a good option for solo travellers without a rental car, bundling transport, accommodation and guided stops into one simple booking.

👉 Book a Melbourne day tour on GetYourGuide →

🍽️ Eating along the route

Food is one of the underrated pleasures of this drive. Torquay and Lorne both have excellent cafes worth a stop, Apollo Bay’s fishing fleet supplies genuinely fresh seafood to its waterfront restaurants, and small producers along the route sell local honey, berries and cheese from honesty-box stalls that are worth pulling over for.

👨‍👩‍👧 Doing the trip with kids

The Great Ocean Road works well as a family road trip, provided you plan for shorter attention spans. Break up the driving with the Kennett River koala stop, which reliably delights kids, and keep the Otways rainforest walk short and easy rather than attempting a longer trail. Most of the main lookouts along the Twelve Apostles have flat, stroller-friendly paths, though some of the staircases down to beaches at Loch Ard Gorge are steeper and better suited to older children.

🧳 Final planning checklist

• 📖 Book accommodation before you leave Melbourne, especially for weekend trips.
• 🛢️ Fill the tank in Geelong or Torquay, since fuel prices climb noticeably along the coast.
• 📸 Charge your camera batteries the night before, you’ll take more photos than you expect.
• 🧥 Pack for four seasons in one day, coastal weather here changes fast regardless of the forecast.
• 🕐 Start Day 2 early to beat the tour buses to the Twelve Apostles viewing platforms.

🎒 What to pack for the drive

• 👟 Comfortable walking shoes, since several of the best lookouts require short walks from the car park, some over uneven boardwalks.
• 🌊 A change of clothes, handy if you decide to wade or swim at any of the sheltered coves along the way.
• ☕ A reusable coffee cup, most of the small coastal towns have excellent cafes worth supporting.
• 🔋 A portable phone charger, especially useful given patchy signal through parts of the Otways.
• 🧴 Reef-safe sunscreen and a hat, the coastal sun reflects strongly off the water even on overcast days.

🌟 Extending the trip to three or four days

If your schedule allows for a little more time, a three or four day version of this trip lets you slow right down. Add an extra night in Apollo Bay to properly explore the Otways, including a stop at the Otway Fly treetop walk, or continue past Port Campbell to Warrnambool for a chance at spotting whales during the migration season between June and September. A longer trip also leaves room for spontaneous stops, like an unplanned beach walk or a detour to a lesser-known lookout you spot along the way.

However many days you give it, this drive rewards those who resist the urge to rush. The Great Ocean Road isn’t really about the destination at either end, it’s about everything in between: the surf towns, the rainforest gullies, the koalas dozing overhead, and finally those extraordinary limestone stacks rising out of the Southern Ocean.

And if you’re still deciding between the rushed one-day version and the relaxed two-day version, remember that you can always drive the Great Ocean Road again another year. What you can’t easily get back is the light you missed at the Twelve Apostles because you were racing the clock back to Melbourne before dark.

Whichever pace you choose, the memory that sticks tends not to be a single lookout but the whole rhythm of the drive: winding coastal bends opening onto surf beaches, a sudden hush stepping into ancient rainforest, and then, right at the end, that unmistakable silhouette of limestone against the Southern Ocean.

Give it the full two days it deserves, and that’s exactly the trip you’ll come home with.